Page:The White Slave, or Memoirs of a Fugitive.djvu/333

 He is not to be allowed to sleep here another night."

"And what do you imagine the state of Massachusetts and the Boston merchants will say at being so unceremoniously kicked out of the court house doorway?"

"O, as to the merchants, they will probably do like a well-bred Carolina negro, who takes off his hat when he gets a kick for his insolence, and grins out, with a low bow, a "Thank ye, master" Kicking agrees quite as well with Yankee merchants as with niggers. And both niggers and merchants are quite used to it! As to the state of Massachusetts, so long as that state continues to be controlled, as at present, by the mercantile and manufacturing influence, there is no danger of any trouble from her. She will pocket the insult very quietly. The political leaders in Massachusetts, of both parties, are exceedingly anxious to hire themselves out as negro drivers to the south. What would become of Boston or Massachusetts without the southern trade? As the poor Yankees live on the crumbs which fall from our table, they are not to be particular about the terms on which they are allowed to pick them up. Of course, if they are allowed to pick up the crumbs, they must expect now and then to eat a little dirt."

My Carolina acquaintance seemed to make a rather low estimate of the spirit of Massachusetts; yet when I recollected what I had myself seen and heard in passing through Boston a few weeks before, I could not but admit that this calculation upon mercantile servility and cupidity was a pretty safe one.

As I reached the hotel, on my return from the merchant's, I found a great crowd collected in the streets. A carriage stood at the door, and presently, a tall, white-haired old gentleman appeared, with a lady leaning on his arm, very ceremoniously attended by half a dozen gentlemen, in white kid gloves, whom I afterwards understood to be a detachment of the vigilance committee, specially appointed to escort the